SCOTUS move fuels uncertainty for tech, groups say

The Supreme Court’s decision to not weigh in on a copyright fight between Google and Oracle could have severe implications for future software development, say public interest groups. The court late in June declined to hear Google’s appeal of a ruling favorable to Oracle. A district court found for Google, but that ruling was overturned by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Google appealed to the Supreme Court -- which declined to hear the case. The court asked the White House to weigh in on the case because it involved copyrights, which could involve the Administration. The White House, in its filing, told the justices not to hear the case and instead send it back to the lower courts.

“It’s difficult for copyright lawyers to understand sort of the boundaries of what is copyrightable,” said Evan Engstrom, the policy director at startup advocacy group Engine, which filed a brief supporting Google. He said it is even harder “for programmers to understand what you’re allow to repurpose and use,” and that the Supreme Court has added to the uncertainty. Others argue that the effects are overstated, in part because Federal Circuit court rulings lack significant power as precedents. Software developers, they say, also appreciate being able to build on other people’s work and would be unlikely to enforce copyright protection en masse against their peers. Still, it is possible that the decision to let the Federal Circuit’s ruling stand could trigger new copyright infringement lawsuits related to APIs. Charles Duan, the Director of Public Knowledge’s Patent Reform Project, said he worried that uncertainty in the courts -- where there are some older rulings that conflict with the Federal Circuit’s decision -- might lead to a fractured software landscape.